Choosing Life

When people talk about choosing to live their lives to ' the max' I often translate that in my own mind to choosing happiness. For me, living life fully is about having more of the good stuff and feeling really happy, most of the time, regardless of what is going on in the world around me.

We know its normal to be affected by our environment and the people around us, and to experience a full gamut of emotions, but if you find that you’re often unhappy, then it’s probably a sign you need to change something in your life.

An important step in living your life in a state of happiness is finding your personal centre, your place of power. In some traditions this place of power is referred to as the hara (meaning oceans of energy) and is said by yogis and mystics to be located in the region of the physcial body just a few inches below the navel. Researchers on the other hand talk about the locus of control which equates to our sense of control over our lives and whether or not we have the power to determine our own path.

There is a bunch of research that demonstrates that people who feel powerful (have an internal locus of control) are happier, healthier and more successful and those who feel powerless or have an external locus of control, experience life quite differently. People with an external locus believe that outside forces like luck, destiny, and even other people actually control their ability to be happy, and the impact of that is significant. I mean who would have thought that academic success or recovery from disease could be so clearly affected by your sense of personal power?

If you think you need to make some adjustments to your thinking so that you feel powerful then don’t worry: it’s totally possible to get that sorted quite quickly, and its surprsingly simple. It’s all about realising that you, yourself, are creating your life through the thoughts and beliefs you are running through your mind. It's quite logical.

Happiness is here for the taking and when you feel powerful, you know you have the power to take hold of it and live life on your own terms. The important thing to remember is that you have the power.